Cold weather, warm hearts

I'm currently sitting on 29 German exams that I should actually be correcting, there's still a little snow outside, although nowhere near as much as I had a few days ago. Instead of correcting, I'd rather reflect on the past 'journey'. For this, I should start with the last evening of the city championships in Hausach just before New Year's Eve. Or even better, at a football game in September, when the idea for a trip to Sweden came up. During the football game, we talked with a friend who is an au pair in Sweden, and we were allowed to stay with her host family for a few days. We wanted to go away for New Year's Eve anyway, so a trip to Sweden with a stopover in Stockholm was booked.

The travel group was organized as follows; I grouped them by survival skills, as a preparation in case we got lost in the Swedish tundra:

• Dominic, Survival skill: experienced survival YouTube viewer, could therefore do many things in the wild (subjective self-assessment).
• Dunja, Survival skill: can provide good first aid as a medical assistant (objectively correct).
• Manuel, Survival skill: handy (objectively correct).
• Anthea, Survival skill: is an au pair in Sweden and gets along well with children (objectively correct, but useless since we have no children with us).
• Me, Survival skill: strong and smart (subjective self-assessment).

Who would you leave behind first in case of an emergency?

First, the question arose: when do we leave? The closing ceremony of the city championships is on December 29th, but we also don’t want to fly on New Year’s Eve, that is, on the 31st. So flight on the 30th, and since we want to make the most of the day, an early departure. Departure from Hausach to Frankfurt is therefore at 6:00 a.m.

Now let's place ourselves at the party after the city championships; I actually wanted to go home early. Domi goes home at 2:00 a.m. Going home at 3:00 a.m.? Still not feeling it, and now everything is irrelevant. So at 4:00 a.m. completely wasted going home (if any students of mine are reading this, I obviously mean 'wasted' in a positive sense full of great memories). Due to many, absolutely unavoidable tasks in the days prior, I hadn't packed yet, so I had to pack my bag in a state of temporarily impaired mental capacity and went to bed at 5:00 a.m., overslept the departure and almost died on the way. Domi, who suffers almost as much and Stein, who just overcame a fever from his bronchitis, were in the back seat. Many people must have wondered: That’s why he wasn’t at the city championships and couldn’t repeat his performance from last year.

The flight was uneventful, and in Stockholm, the cold whipped us while getting off, followed by a ridiculously cheap Uber ride to our Airbnb. There, we first had to find out that the reviews were accurate and the shower drain really was as disgusting as described. Otherwise, it was okay, and the sofa bed was good enough to catch up on some sleep. From 8 a.m. to 8 a.m. The next morning, we had a ridiculously overpriced breakfast in a café and did some sightseeing in the old town. Dunja had the best plan of the city, so we could see quite a lot.

As for New Year's Eve, all I can say is that in the future we should avoid fireworks in Hausach not only out of love for animals but also for the somewhat frightful Anthea and Dunja. Admittedly, it also came as a surprise that we couldn't admire the fireworks that were lit in the city from the beautiful hill by the river overlooking the city, but rather the city admired the extensive fireworks that were ignited on our hill by 2,000 drunken Swedes.

On New Year's Day, we almost missed our morning boat tour. However, there wouldn't have been much view due to a half snowstorm; the skerries were also shrouded in fog. As a diligent Instagrammer, I still went up to the top deck and tried for five minutes to photograph the Swedish flag at the stern with the view. The risk of having my phone blown away was gallantly accepted for this breathtaking result.

On that day, we only took the bus once since Uber was so cheap that even an heir from a taxi company was happy to use it. We wanted to go to a supposed Viking museum by bus but promptly got on the wrong one, which is why walking Domi and Stein arrived much earlier than us. To their misfortune, the two had to spend some time in the neighboring petroleum museum in the meantime.

When we finally arrived at the correct museum, the Vasa Museum, I realized upon entering the exhibition hall that the huge ship that was salvaged in the harbor of Stockholm had nothing to do with Vikings as a galleon, except that the Stockholm Vikings were 500 years ahead of their time. Still, it was impressive. 

Unfortunately, the ship sank on its maiden voyage. Its service to the Swedish Navy was similarly short as the periods during this vacation when nobody in our group was sick or unwell. Or at least claimed not to be.

Man flu affected Domi, or something else always bothered Dunja, leading to constant suffering and ups and downs.

Stein only narrowly escaped bronchitis before the trip, but he never complained. Smoke breaks were still fine, although they thankfully didn’t hinder his recovery. However, he renounced alcohol due to illness, even if he ended up drinking six non-alcoholic beers while watching darts. Maybe he can turn non-alcoholic beer into real beer while drinking instead of turning water into wine.

The next morning awaited a 5-hour drive to Anthea's au pair family in the interior, and before that, a detour to the Björnö Nature Reserve. Here, we finally got to admire some skerries and test the suitability of our equipment on smooth cliffs.

As you can surely remember, I wasn't at my best when packing my suitcase, but the result still looked good. I only packed my old shoes, which were nonetheless suitable for hiking. Lacking a proper winter jacket, I had to borrow one, though the lender didn’t really know about the deal. But I’ll return it as if freshly washed. After four hours of climbing, including getting off the path, we finally continued. We drove 'through the pampas,' as was complained in the car. I thought it better not to mention that our destination was also in the pampas. The drive continued until it was dark, which currently starts around 3 p.m. here, since it had already been light for six hours by then. Driving through magical snow forests at night definitely had its own charm.

Finally arrived, we were allowed to stay in the guest house and wash for the first time. That wasn’t bad at all; I had already worn my thermal underwear for three days. One could have thought a bit more of that in the suitcase. But you can’t expect everything.

Thanks to the dryer, I could wear the things again the next day. Unfortunately, my new SC Freiburg cap didn’t survive washing and drying and had to part ways with me. I didn’t have too much cause for grief since my AirPods survived both the speed wash and the turbo program in the dryer, having gone through with them in a pocket and later freely floating. Thus, despite the loss of my nice cap, the glass was definitely half full. Especially since the AirPods were nice and clean again. However, I still wouldn’t recommend using a washing machine for that.

Domi had it harder since we forgot his beloved Gruyère in the Airbnb in Stockholm (there are differing opinions on the blame), but his 'club' Stein comforted him with a shopping trip for sweets and beer (non-alcoholic). Because of our host family’s strict smoking rules, however, Manu had to go for little walks at -6 degrees often, but the fresh air surely contributed to his recovery.

The hike on our last full day through a real snowy landscape was impressive, even though part of it led cross-country through deep snow. In the evening, there was the most boring darts final ever, and on Sunday we flew home. On the plane, the flight attendants found us so great that the beer was on the house. Officially, the bottles broke. We hit it off well.

(Picture napkin)

Anthea will stay in Sweden until the end of the year and has received a homework assignment from me to send me a pair of pants that I cleverly forgot. A fine gesture from her.

Throughout the trip, my excitement for the finale of Stranger Things was very high. Since I couldn’t watch it in Sweden, I listened instead to the iconic song 'End of Beginning' on repeat until Manu forbade it in the car. My most listened-to song in 2026 is definitely secured.

So what remains after this trip, after the city championships and Sweden? I won’t look at my account for a few days (it was an expensive two weeks), all my white socks have orange stains from my hiking boots, Domi is the most positive person I know, and Stein is the most relaxed; Dunja learned what a desert believer is, Anthea is more mature at 21 than I am, and unfortunately, we didn’t meet either a moose or reindeer.

Now I must get back to the German exams and evaluate my students’ thoughts on the subject of communication. You can take the man out of school but not the school out of the man.

*By the way, for this sentence, I consulted ChatGPT to see if it could formulate it more beautifully than me. I preferred to stick with my wording after seeing the cheesy result. :D

'The hike on our last full day led us through a truly snowy landscape – silent, vast, and with an overwhelming beauty that left a deep impression.'